


When a woman learns to walk, she’s not dependent any more

by Kaesteranya



Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-04
Updated: 2011-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-15 09:24:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/159384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaesteranya/pseuds/Kaesteranya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A speculative piece on how Aerith and Tseng first met in person.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When a woman learns to walk, she’s not dependent any more

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in during the later parts of FF7: Crisis Core, particularly after Zack tells Tseng to watch over his girl.
> 
> The title of this piece is taken from the 31 Days theme for May 24, 2008.

Aerith Gainsborough’s daily route took her through the slums in Sectors 6 and 7, back near the church in Sector 5 then over to the market, and then up the plate to Sector 8, where she lingered the longest by the fountain, calling out to the passersby with a handful of her wares (read: the prettiest flowers in all of Midgar). Tseng knew this because he was always just a few steps behind her, hidden by shadows and milling crowds, keeping his eyes on her back and the ruffians off her path. He had thought that he was good enough, that his years of experience as a Turk were enough to keep him concealed and therefore always just under Aerith’s radar, but a humiliatingly short period of time went by before she figured it all out. He still recalled that day with some chagrin: losing Aerith in the crowd, a moment of panic, then dashing around a street corner only to find her standing by the wall behind him, holding back a fit of giggles.

 

“You must be the one Zack told me about before,” the girl had said, after she had finished laughing and he had finished turning several shades of red. She only giggled again when he groaned, and stepped forward. “I’m Aerith,” she declared, extending one slim, delicate hand towards him with a brilliant smile. “What’s your name?” He had not intended to answer her that day, but had ended up crumbling after she had dragged him all over the slums and chattered about nothing in particular and somehow, he had found it a little charming.

 

That was the first time they had ever come face-to-face with each other, and it would be a while before it happened again – part of surveillance was to never let one’s charge know that one was in the area, and Aerith had promised not to make any indication that Tseng had botched up for the price of a bouquet of flowers. They met many other times, albeit briefly: Aerith was writing letters to her boyfriend, Zack Fair, a member of SOLDIER whom Tseng had worked closely with in the past. Tseng constantly promised the girl that he would deliver her messages to Zack somehow, even though he was just about as clueless as she was regarding Zack’s whereabouts. What truly surprised him, though, was the fact that although Aerith could have asked him about Zack, she never did.

 

Four years and eighty-eight letters later, the pair met on a “date” Aerith spontaneously decided to have with Tseng, on the day nearly three-fourths of the Shin-Ra army went after Zack Fair and gunned him down on the outskirts of Midgar. She was wearing pink, he noted: it was a big change from the usual. When he complimented her on it, she merely smiled. From the long silences and the way she looked out the café window and into the rain, Tseng somehow knew that she knew that the boy she loved was dead, without ever having to ask. He had offered to escort her home that day – she had refused. The image of her walking away from him in the downpour that day stayed with him through the years, faded for a while, and then returned, unbidden, the day he found himself slumped against the wall of the Temple of Ancients, hand against his bleeding side, staring at the searing sun, waiting for the only ones Aerith had ever called friends.


End file.
